UAE calls for global action on wildlife trafficking

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The United Arab Emirates has called for stronger global cooperation to combat wildlife trafficking and other environmental crimes, warning that such activities now pose a serious transnational threat linked to organised crime, corruption and climate change.

Speaking at a high-level United Nations debate, Colonel Saeed Al Dhaheri, Minister Plenipotentiary and Police Advisor, said environmental crime was no longer a “standalone environmental issue” but one that undermines biodiversity, fuels illegal economies and threatens security and livelihoods across borders.

He said the impact of such crimes extended far beyond the sites where they are committed, contributing to global warming, food and water insecurity, displacement and wider instability.

To address the challenge, he highlighted a UAE-led initiative launched in 2023 in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), known as the International Initiative on Law Enforcement for Climate. The programme focuses on strengthening cooperation between law enforcement agencies, expanding training, and improving global capacity to tackle environmental offences.

According to the UAE, the initiative has built a network of more than 50 law enforcement agencies and international organisations, and has supported joint operations across major ecological regions including the Amazon and Congo basins.

Colonel Al Dhaheri said these coordinated operations had brought together agencies from multiple regions, including South America, Africa and the Middle East, to target illegal logging, wildlife trafficking and related environmental crimes.

He also pointed to capacity-building programmes carried out between 2024 and 2026, which trained more than 4,300 participants from 143 countries in investigating and prosecuting environmental offences, including deforestation-related crimes.

In addition, he highlighted the use of new technology tools such as an Environmental Crime Observatory and a “heatmap” system designed to track emerging threats and identify patterns in illegal activity.

The UAE said the results of recent operations have included more than 177 arrests, the seizure of over 14,300 cubic metres of illegally harvested timber, and more than 690 tonnes of illegally extracted minerals.